About DleList
DleList is a hand-picked directory of Wordle-like daily puzzle games — the entire “-dle” universe, in one searchable place, free to play and free of signups.
What's a “-dle” game?
A -dle game (rhymes with “noodle,” pronounced “dull”) is a short, daily browser puzzle in the style of Wordle. The genre takes its name from the suffix Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer, bolted onto his own surname when he built the first one in 2021 as a private gift for his partner.
He made it public in October 2021. By the end of that year millions of people were playing daily, and on January 31, 2022 The New York Times acquired the game. The suffix exploded from there: Worldle for geography, Heardle for music, Nerdle for math, Framed for movies, and — at last count — many hundreds more.
DleList is our running attempt to keep track of all of them.
The DNA of every -dle game
Whether the subject is words, countries, K-pop choruses, or Pokémon cries, almost every game in the genre shares the same five-part skeleton:
- One puzzle a day. The puzzle resets at a fixed time (usually local midnight, though some sync to UTC) and everyone playing on that day gets the same one. That synchronicity is what makes the genre talkable.
- A small budget of guesses. Wordle gives you six attempts at a five-letter word; most spinoffs work with four to eight guesses. The constraint is what forces the puzzle into a tight three-to-five-minute play session.
- Color-coded feedback. Green for “exact,” yellow for “close,” and gray for “no.” The feedback grammar Wardle invented is now so universal that you can read most spinoffs without instructions.
- A shareable result grid. At the end you copy a block of colored emoji squares that encodes your guesses without revealing the answer. This is the single most important design decision in the genre — it makes talking about today's puzzle safe for spoilers.
- Streaks and stats. Most games track consecutive-day solves locally. The number on your phone is what brings you back at 9am tomorrow.
A growing number of games also ship an endless mode (sometimes called unlimited or practice) — same mechanics, but you can solve back-to-back puzzles instead of waiting for tomorrow. Daily mode is still the soul of the genre; endless is the snack in between.
The categories we track
Every game on DleList is tagged with one or more of these 20 categories. Tap any pill on the home page to focus on a single one.
- Words.
- The bedrock. Wordle, Quordle, Octordle, Squaredle, and the endless stream of spelling-and-vocabulary spinoffs.
- Geography.
- Country, city, and map guessers. Worldle, Globle, Tradle, and friends.
- History.
- Dates, figures, and timelines. Year-guessing games and historical trivia in -dle form.
- Music.
- Identify songs, artists, and instruments from clips. Heardle and its many descendants — Bandle, BopMatch, Crosstune.
- Movies/TV.
- Frame-by-frame movie guessers and TV-show trivia. Framed, Actorle, Cine2Nerdle.
- Math.
- Arithmetic and number-pattern puzzles. Nerdle and its analytical cousins.
- Logic.
- Pure deduction puzzles — sudoku-likes, grid-fillers, and lateral-thinking dailies.
- Trivia.
- Open-domain trivia in daily-puzzle form, often themed around a single quirky topic.
- Sports.
- Athlete and team guessers, lineup puzzles, and play-by-play trivia.
- Science/Nature.
- Animals, plants, chemistry, anatomy — the daily-puzzle science fair.
- Video Games.
- Fan-built game-specific -dles. LoLdle, Pokedle, and a long tail of franchise guessers.
- Food.
- Recipes, ingredients, and cuisine guessing.
- Colors.
- Hex codes, paint chips, and shade matching.
- Estimation.
- Higher-or-lower and "guess the number" calibration games. Surprisingly addictive.
- Shapes/Patterns.
- Visual recognition: silhouettes, outlines, tessellations, abstract patterns.
- Vehicles.
- Cars, planes, ships, trains. Spec-sheet and silhouette guessing.
- Card/Board Games.
- Card identification and meta-puzzles built around poker, Magic, Hearthstone, and tabletop games.
- Novelty.
- Joke -dles, parodies, and one-off conceits that don't fit anywhere else but are too fun to skip.
- Miscellaneous.
- Everything else worth your daily five minutes.
How we curate
Every game on this list is hand-checked by a human. To make the cut, a game has to be:
- Playable in a browser. No App Store detour, no downloads, no account creation, no email gate before the first puzzle.
- Free to play. The daily puzzle should be open to anyone who shows up, with no gate in the way.
- Daily, or close to it. The defining feature of the genre is the daily cadence. Some endless-mode siblings sneak in when they're genuinely great.
- Actually working. We periodically re-check links and drop games that have gone offline, broken, or rotted into an unplayable state.
Order within each category reflects our own read of how fun, polished, and well-loved each game is — and nothing more.
Finding your next favorite
- Browse by category. Tap any pill on the home page to focus a single category.
- Search. Hit ⌘K (or Ctrl K) anywhere on the home page to jump to a game by name, description, or category.
- Random. The Random button in the top nav opens a random listed game in a new tab. Great for stumbling into something new.
- Favorites. Tap the star next to any game to pin it to a personal list. Favorites live in your browser — no account needed, and they never leave your device.
- Personalize. In Settings, you can reorder or hide categories and switch between light and dark mode.
Where the games actually live
DleList doesn't host any games. Every listing links straight to the developer's own site, so when you click a tile you leave dlelist.com and land on whatever they built. We're a directory, not a portal — the credit and the traffic belong to the people who made the game.
If you're a developer and a listing is out of date, broken, or you'd simply like it removed, just email us.
Frequently asked questions
What is a -dle game?
A "-dle" game (pronounced "dull") is a short, daily browser puzzle in the style of Wordle. The genre takes its name from the suffix Josh Wardle bolted onto his own surname when he built the original. The shared recipe: one bite-sized puzzle a day, the same puzzle for everyone, a handful of guesses, color-coded feedback, and a shareable spoiler-free result grid.
Where did the -dle genre come from?
Josh Wardle, a Brooklyn-based software engineer, built Wordle in 2021 as a private gift for his partner. He made it public in October 2021. By the end of that year millions of people were playing daily, and on January 31, 2022 The New York Times acquired the game. The suffix exploded from there: Worldle for geography, Heardle for music, Nerdle for math, Framed for movies, and hundreds more.
How is a -dle different from a regular puzzle game?
Three things define the genre. First, it's daily — one puzzle, the same puzzle for everyone, with a hard reset at midnight (usually local time). Second, the result is shareable without spoiling the answer, typically as a grid of colored emoji squares. Third, it's deliberately brief: most -dles are designed to be over in three to five minutes, so they slot into a coffee break rather than demanding a play session.
Are -dle games free to play?
Almost all of them, yes. The genre grew out of indie web culture, where free-to-play is the norm. DleList only lists games where the daily puzzle is free to play, with no signup gate in the way.
Do I need to make an account to play games on DleList?
No. DleList itself never requires an account — your favorites and theme are stored locally in your browser and never leave your device. The third-party games we link to set their own policies, but the overwhelming majority of -dle games are signup-free by design.
What's the difference between daily mode and endless (or unlimited) mode?
In daily mode there is exactly one puzzle per 24 hours and everyone gets the same one — this is the "classic" -dle experience and the one that produced the shareable grid culture. Endless or unlimited mode lets you keep solving back-to-back puzzles at your own pace, which is great for practice but loses the synchronized-with-the-world feeling. Many of the best -dles ship both.
Is DleList affiliated with Wordle or The New York Times?
No. DleList is an independent, fan-run directory. "Wordle" is a trademark of The New York Times Company; we link to NYT Games like everyone else, but we have no formal relationship with the NYT or with any other listed publisher. If you are a rights holder and want a listing changed or removed, just email us.
How does DleList decide which games to list?
Every game on DleList is hand-checked by a human before it ships. To make the list, a game has to (a) be playable directly in a browser with no app install and no signup gate, (b) be free to play, (c) deliver a daily puzzle (or be a close enough endless cousin to be worth it), and (d) actually work — we periodically re-crawl listings and drop the broken ones. Category ordering reflects editorial judgment, end of story.
How often is the list updated?
New submissions are reviewed in batches roughly weekly. Reader tips are the single biggest source of additions — if you have found a great -dle that is not here yet, send it via the submit page.
Know one we missed?
The list grows mostly from reader tips. If you've found a great -dle that isn't here yet, submit it. We read every submission and reply when we add one.
Contact
Tips, takedowns, corrections, or just to say hi: hello@dlelist.com.